WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican presidential hopeful John McCain planned to visit Europe and the Middle East this coming week to burnish his statesman credentials as Democrats brawl back home.
While McCain prepared for the trip, Democrat Barack Obama was under fire on two fronts, over controversial remarks his pastor made about the September 11 attacks and his ties to a businessman facing corruption charges.
McCain, who touts his foreign affairs experience over Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, leads a congressional delegation from Tuesday to meet the leaders of Jordan, Israel, Britain and France, his office said.
But off the official schedule is a weekend trip to Iraq, where he will see firsthand the effects of the troop "surge" which he has fervently advocated even as US public support for the war slumped, the Washington Post reported.
The delegation was to meet with US military officials and Iraq's leaders to assess the success of the surge strategy that deployed more soldiers to Iraq, the Post said.
When contacted by AFP, McCain campaign aides were not able to confirm the Iraq leg of the trip.
Observers said the trip will give several heads of state a closer look at one of the three candidates battling for the White House.
"The people he's going to meet with are going to try to find out from him what he would do as president," Jim Steinberg, a dean of public affairs at the University of Texas, told the daily.
McCain stressed that the overseas trip is not political but part of his role as the top Republican in the Democrat-led Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I do want to emphasize again that the three of us are going as members of the Armed Services Committee," McCain was quoted as saying in the New York Times. "And we will emphasize that at every stop."
Yet there were political elements that were hard to ignore.
McCain's campaign will likely use the meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to convey that the senator is at home on the world stage.
"He will not talk about the presidential race. But to the degree that there are pictures of John McCain standing on the world stage next to leaders, he will wear that well," a Republican Party strategist told the Washington Post.
"Does that resonate well with people back home? Sure it does."
The former Vietnam prisoner of war recently likened himself to Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill in a new ad laying out a hawkish foreign policy of "no surrender" to US foes including Islamic extremists.
In January he reaffirmed his support for the deployment of thousands of additional US troops in Iraq.
"When I raise my hand and vote to send young men and women, American men and women into harm's way and fight a war, I am committing to accomplishing the mission," McCain said, putting himself in stark contrast to Obama and Clinton who are seeking troop drawdowns from Iraq.
McCain, who sealed the Republican nomination this month, is joined on his trip by independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Lindsey Graham, two staunch supporters in his White House bid.
While McCain travels, Democrats are struggling to choose between Obama and Clinton, with party leaders concerned that their mud-slinging could detract from the party's goal of ousting the Republicans from the White House.
Obama repudiated remarks by his Chicago pastor as he sought to quell an uproar over Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who said the September 11 attacks were brought on by American "terrorism" and that African-Americans should sing "God Damn America" to protest their treatment.
The Illinois senator has also been dogged by his ties to Chicago businessman Tony Rezko, who is accused of using his political clout to carry out a kickback scheme aimed at extorting millions from firms trying to do business with the state.
Obama, who is not accused of any wrongdoing and has donated all the money raised by Rezko, acknowledged in a Chicago Tribune interview that Rezko had raised as much as 250,000 dollars for the first three offices he sought, more than previously konwn.
Obama, who also had private real estate transactions with Rezko, said voters should view his Rezko dealings as "a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest," according to the Tribune.
The candidate was quoted as saying voters should also "see somebody who is not engaged in any wrongdoing ... and who they can trust."
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